I watched Bondi+ up in Gozo on Tuesday, having to be there for work purposes rather than the usual r&r, and I was able to concentrate on the content more than usually, since I didn't have the competing attraction of a fired-up computer.

It was an interesting show, concentrating on the PN leader (and PM)'s Sunday speech, when in broad terms he reminded us that the PN is not, to the eternal chagrin of Labour and its Tiny Elves (have to diminish them to reflect their real stature) GonziPN for ever, because the party is dynamic and can, and does, change.

This theme was taken up with skill by Marthese Portelli, batting for the PN against Edward Zammit Lewis, fielded for Labour. Not wishing to flog the cricket analogy to death, I'll bid it goodbye by saying that she beat him by an innings and six runs, Labour's boy having managed to imitate a rabbit stuck in headlights for some of the time and a stuck record for the rest of it, doggedly repeating the tag-lines and mantras that constitute Labour's sound-bite style of campaigning.

The PM's speech has made it clear: the PN's policy-framers have smelt the coffee, and verily it has a 1996 whiff about it. Notwithstanding Labour's carping and whining, things are not so bad on a national scale (Zammit Lewis even ground out an admission that the busses have improved, shock horror) but the electorate is not feeling duly beholdin' to the PN in Government, which is going to have to make sure that its macro successes are translated into micro feel-goods.

That this is an electoral strategy is obvious: political parties are in the game to govern, presumably in the national interest, though not if you believe Labour. To do this, they need to adapt to the environment in which they function, which the PM has promised the PN will do. To do this, as Marthese Portelli pointed out on Tuesday, the PN will have to demonstrate that its Governmental achievements on a national scale have direct relevance to each of us. Labour's alternative is still a deep unknown, as ever, so their relevance we can't measure.

The PN will also have to convince the electorate that it has changed within itself, which is a fact. There are very few old faces in its ranks (even though Labour weirdly seems to think that using one of them, Citizen John (Dalli), in its electioneering is a good idea) while Labour's ranks seem to be full of blasts from the past without whom we really, really could live.

It's going to be an interesting campaign, and it looks like being a long one, again to the Tiny Elves' disappointment.